YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Today, the incomparable Braden Keil at the New York Post titillated and intrigued the world with this week's Gimme Sheltercolumn. The lead story was about pop music Svengali Tommy Mottola offering his large Westchester County estate, dubbed "The Summit," up for sale for nearly $20,000,000.

Many people think this former CEO of Sony lined his own pockets with the vast proceeds of the groups he represented and managed. Although his star shines less brightly than it once did in the music industry he remains a powerful, polarizing, and controversial figure.

The thrice married music mogul's second betroth-ed was the kooky and unstable vocal acrobat Mariah Carey. The couple dee-vorced in 1998 after about ten years of marriage and career management during which Mariah became "MARIAH," a period of time the whistle stop happy songstress does not speak fondly. Mottola later dated Bronx born diva Jennifer Lopez for a hot minute and then, in 2000 married Thalia, a much younger Mexican pop star and soap opera regular.

Readers of glossy gossip magazines like Vanity Fair and New York Magazine already know that Mottola has a reputation for lavish living. The flamboyant and temperamental music mogul has been known to splurge on luxuries like a perfume refrigerator for his wife, bullet proof cars, a small army of armed and scary security guards, and of course, outrageous homes.

Mottola once paid David Geffen $13,300,000 for an Upper East Side townhouse that he later put on the market for a shocking $27,000,000. He also owned a private compound on celebrity friendly Star Island in Miami which had both indoor and outdoor pools. The weather can be so terrible in Miami, so the indoor pool really makes a lot of sense to Your Mama. He has also owned a string of homes in the Hamptons including spreads in Sag Harbor and Shelter Island.

An article in New York Magazine quotes a supposed friend of Mottola who says, “Tommy has an addiction to buying lavish, enormous places, overpaying for them, putting millions and millions of dollars into them, most often with good taste, showing off with them,” says a friend, “and then when they’re finished, he suddenly realizes they’re too big or too expensive.”

That must be the case at this recently completed mansion in North Salem, about 45 minutes north of New York City, where it seems his staff has hardly got his designer underwear carefully placed in custom designed dressing room drawers before he decided to sell the 11.9 acre property that features expansive views of the mighty Hudson River and incredible privacy.

As best as Your Mama can surmise, Mottola cobbled this property together by purchasing three separate parcels. One parcel was purchased in 1996 and the other two in 2000. We presume it was then that Mottola began the process of designing and building his monster, Aspen-ish mansion.

According the Mister Keil and the listing for the property, the house was decorated by Aspen based designer Linda Bedell, and features acres of exotic woods and impressive stone work. The house sprawls across nearly 11,000 square feet of space with five bedrooms, gourmet kitchen, great room with vaulted ceilings and two fireplaces, den, office with fireplace, family room, a gym, sauna, and of course, a vast master bedroom suite featuring two decadent bathrooms.

What does Your Mama think of the place? Well, to be honest children, we're terrified of Mister Mottola and his retinue of goons. So we're keeping our opinionated mouth shut about this one. We'll let you hash it out in the comments if you please.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The front elevation is a little McMansion-esque for my taste, but from the rear the home does seem to have more of a chalet feel to it. One too many knick knacks in the lounge, and am not keen on candles burning overhead either in here or the dining room - how off putting for guests to suddenly find hot wax dripping all over their lobster salads. I do admire the orange chairs, however. I also enjoy the outrageously huge windows throughout, especially in the kitchen, but as Mama would note the new owner had better be prepared to hire a girl for the express purpose of Windexing those monster panes 40 hrs a week. The two enormous fridges in the kitchen are to die for, but the effect is unfortunately marred by that hideous and tacky over-over sized clock up above. I guess the shiny metal bathtubs are OK - not really my taste but let's hope the property really is shielded from the long lenses of the paps as there do not appear to be any window treatments at all in either bath. I love the pool and patio area but do not see the point in having an infinity pool (I am fairly sure that is what this is supposed to be) when your view does not extend to the ocean. It is perfectly obvious that the pool does not go on infinitely when there is a forest directly behind it!

It's amazing just how expensive "simple" can be. In the living room, that metal lamp thingy hanging on the wall is Prouve, and costs $1500, and of course we all know the egg chair in the living room aint cheap. The chaise and chair in the bedroom are Poul Kjaerholm and run about $13-14,000 EACH. But this is one fancy guesthouse...or doghouse.

Ellen- This is my invitation for you to get a place for me. You can do whatever you want with it!